As anyone who’s ever read MetalSucks before imagines, we are loving the insanity surrounding founding Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes and his public meltdown surrounding modern death metal. After calling out a video featuring four of death metal’s brightest vocalists as making him “physically ill,” Barnes went on to insult the entire scene, block everyone on Twitter, and make a general clown of himself. Now, one of the vocalists featured in the roundtable video Barnes freaked out about, Undeath‘s Alexander Jones, has spoken at some length about it, and he’s both thoughtful and real as fuck.
Speaking to the metal interview series Everflowing Stream about his band’s new album It’s Time…to Rise From The Grave, Jones was asked about Barnes, and the dude was happy to discuss (transcribed by The PRP):
“Man, you know I just think it’s sad. I guess… I’ll try not to be too dismissive, here because I want to provide a serious answer to that question. But I think… you know, the guy’s a legend. He was an instrumental member on some of the most important death metal albums in history. I think if he had just stayed in his lane, so to speak, and not become like you know, a right-wing anti-vaxxer ghoul, then he could be a very well respected, loved, beloved character in the metal scene.
This is not only one of the funniest things we’ve heard in a long time, but it’s also one of the truest. Barnes had every chance to be an elder statesman with some questionable opinions. Instead, he’s a fucking Nutrageous with the rapper half-off.
Anyway, Jones goes on:
“But I think he just made some very bad calls with the things that he chose to align himself with. I think he has kind of exposed some very obnoxious and kind of gross and frustrating beliefs over recent years. All in all, I knew all of that about him going into him saying what he said on Twitter, so I wasn’t surprised.
“I wasn’t really expecting somebody like Chris Barnes at his current state to view that Knotfest video and say ‘wow, death metal is in great hands. I’m so proud of all these guys.’ Like, I know he’s he’s turned into a curmudgeon over the past 15-20 years, but it is what it is. I’m unbothered by it, and the rest of the guys in the band, we just kind of think it’s funny. And honestly, I need to send him a gift basket or something, because he’s given the new record a lot of free press over the past couple days.”
And just like that, Jones shows everyone what a dumbass Barnes was in the first place. The dude funny, self-aware, honest — everything you want from a death metal vocalist (besides badass vocals, which we know Jones already provides).
You can check out to the full interview below. Undeath’s It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave comes out via Prosthetic Records on April 22nd and is available for preorder.